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Old 10th Mar 2021, 1:19 pm   #101
AdrianH
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Mine was in my spam folder, so I could well imagine that it hit other automatic spam folders.

Adrian

Also check by logging into your Ofcom account for your amateur license that the details are correct with a valid email address.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 1:33 pm   #102
John M0GLN
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6ONEDave View Post
Luckily with using Thunderbird for my emails, it shows if anything has been put in it's trash/spam sections, which I check before closing the program.

Dave
I also use Thunderbird but it never shows up anything other than new mail in the Inbox so I check my ISP (Sky) website every day and the OFCOM email in question was in the spam box there.

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Old 10th Mar 2021, 1:40 pm   #103
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

I use Thunderbird also, and found if you use imap to go and get mail from other accounts that spam can sit on the main server until retrieved or deleted, with no indication it is there in the spam folder.

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Old 10th Mar 2021, 1:43 pm   #104
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Mine was also in a spam folder.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 2:39 pm   #105
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Whilst trying not to indulge in overreaction, I think some of the negative response is inevitable as, in the face of many factors that already make amateur radio a far less attractive and more difficult hobby to enjoy than in years gone by, this is, as in many other areas of life, ‘yet another’ compliance issue and yet another hoop through which to jump.

And then there is the question as to whether for some the hoop can be jumped through at all.

I have operated from a flat. It was hardly an ideal situation years ago and given the proximity of neighbours on all sides would appear next to impossible now except with miniscule power through very compromised antennas that probably makes the rewards for the effort put in to get on the air so small as to be pointless.

Operators I know who have neighbours who are are amenable and kind enough to allow aerials to overhang their property and in some cases allow wires to be secured to fences beyond the boundaries of the operator’s property (yes, despite all the planning aggro one hears about, these folk exist!) will now find their operations compromised.

As someone who has the luxury of a small garden and had in the last couple of weeks figured out a way of stringing up a stealthy 40m dipole with low visual impact (one leg just above the roof) with a view to returning to air from home after some years I have now already discounted this idea. I can think of of scores of modest installations I have seen over the years that will fall foul of this proposal unless one is content to operate using a couple of watts or so. (The inverted V down the road that terminates near the front garden fence has had its death warrent served.)

As someone who ran QRP on VHF and UHF but liked experimenting with aerials I know that aerial efficiency and gain and thus ERP was what made up for the few watts coming out of the PA. Though I could accommodate a gainy 144MHz beam in my current urban situation proximity of neighbours is now a problem which probably rules that out unless I consider going to height which invites another problem.

Perhaps amateur radio as many of us once knew it is destined to become the hobby of those who live in detached houses set in large amounts of real estate or live in relatively isolated rural situations.

We are becoming an increasingly regulated and controlled society and this will only be accelerated by the year we have just endured and the situation we continue to endure. This latest proposal is just another symptom of this seemingly unstoppable tide.

Like many on this forum I have other hobbies and interests away from radio and have also been involved in voluntary and community work over the years. Each one has steadily become more regulated with compliance for this, a certificate for that, a training course required for the other, or compromised by social constraints that now exist (if not enforceable legally). Some voluntary initiatives had already ceased as they had become too much hassle for volunteers to operate. In the light of the Covid situation I know of youth groups that have already decided to disband as complying with new regulations and procedures now (and likely to continue in some form) make it not worth the hassle. I realise that this paragraph is a little OT but I just think it is symptomatic of the world we are living in and the new ultra-health conscious aim for a zero risk world we are entering.

(I’m currently involved in a woodland project but am forbidden to use the powered tools I have used for decades in my own gardens without going through multiple hoops and training courses. (So I use hand tools – at least it’s good physical exercise!))

I shall wait to see what tool the RSGB comes up with. It also has to be something that I can implement and understand as a pure amateur, i.e. someone whose knowledge only comes from participation in the hobby and never worked in the electronics, radio or allied industries, and that I can be confident in if challenged.

So, for the time being, all is on hold.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 2:55 pm   #106
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Well said Nick.
I'm in a similar boat. My topband vertical is mounted on the dividing wall between our houses and it's quite close to the rear wall of the garden, beyond which passes a public walkway.
The only place I could move it to would be the corner of the kitchen/bathroom extension, but that would put it very close to my Wellbrook receive loop.
Using the calculator, I see that a power level well below 5 watts would just about make it 'safe', but as a number of the stations I speak to on topband have high noise levels they would struggle to hear me.
I can't go back on 4m as the noise here suddenly increased a few years ago and the band is almost unusable now. I've never liked 2m much and my once-favoured band 70cm is dead as a Dodo.
It's almost as if they want rid of us.
Och weel, I'll just become a listener.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 3:24 pm   #107
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

As a quick follow up, I have now got a case number by email. My partner contacted Ofcom by phone and is now confirmed as being validated. Apparently according to the lady at Ofcom, they no longer notify anyone by email when a licence needs to be re-validated. So it seems that I now need a diary for 2026, So that I can put a reminder in it to contact Ofcom to re-validate again. I feel that the onus should be for them to get this sorted with a letter in the post, after all they have the database with all the contact details in it. If this requires a small fee to do, then OK!
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 4:25 pm   #108
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Quote:
So it seems that I now need a diary for 2026
I think you missed the point of that being a maximum. You can revalidate you license online every 20 minutes if you want to be sure! (Or whenever you have forgotten when you last did it, like I do).
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 4:32 pm   #109
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

You re validate the licence each time you log in to Ofcom.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 4:44 pm   #110
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

I would prefer to revalidate every year. At least then I could put it on my year planner with the other annual things to be done. It just goes to show what a backwater amateur radio is or is considered to be.

(For the first time since the 1970s I didn’t buy a diary ahead of this year – there didn't seem any point. I have a calendar to remind me what day it is. I have kept my 2020 diary in case there is another shortage of toilet paper.)
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 4:45 pm   #111
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

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Originally Posted by HamishBoxer View Post
You re validate the licence each time you log in to Ofcom.
I don't think that is strictly correct. You need to update or re-confirm your contact details.
I've added this to the list of things to do every January the 1st. No problem.

Last edited by NottsIan; 10th Mar 2021 at 4:46 pm. Reason: Missed a word out
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 6:08 pm   #112
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Yes, I am wrong, just me that confirms details when I log in possibly once or twice a year.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 7:42 pm   #113
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Worth noting this in the OFCOM email:

+++
In future we intend to make greater use of General Notices published on our website and may not individually contact you to inform you that we have published one. We would therefore urge all licensees to regularly check the Ofcom website or subscribe to email spectrum updates by going to the following page on our website ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/email-updates.
+++

In times-past I subscribed [professionally] to their email-announcements but forgot to renew my subscription when I quit work and changed email-address.

Personally, I'm 101% happy with these things being notified-by-email [or SMS] rather than by snail-mail. 20+ years ago when I got my 5MHz NoV I was required to provide a phone/SMS number on which I could be contacted if the MoD required me to close down for some reason.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 8:36 pm   #114
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick View Post
I would prefer to revalidate every year. At least then I could put it on my year planner with the other annual things to be done.
You can re-validate every year if you want to, if that makes it easier to plan for. You don't have to wait 5 years until the licence is about to expire.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 9:08 pm   #115
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick View Post
I would prefer to revalidate every year. At least then I could put it on my year planner with the other annual things to be done.
You can re-validate every year if you want to, if that makes it easier to plan for. You don't have to wait 5 years until the licence is about to expire.
I do understand that. I kept a note in my licence file but would forget about it until periodically the subject came up on here or there was a comment in RadCom. I have to confess the Ofcom site isn’t one I visit regularly. Perhaps it’s easier to pick a date (if we all use 1 January we’ll probably crash the Ofcom website!) and use that – birthday or anniversary of first issue of licence, etc.

However I shall rephrase:

I would prefer Ofcom to require revalidation every year. At least then I could put it on my year planner with the other annual things to be done.

Years, ago I had to make sure my fee was paid every year before expiry or lose my licence with the prospect of having to sit the RAE, etc., again. Holding a licence carried some weight and paying for something meant service was expected by the holder. That Ofcom only require revalidation every five years just goes to show how amateur licences have declined in standing, and further confirmed by the comment upthread that Ofcom may not send out notices by email and the onus will be on the amateur to check the Ofcom site. It’s not as if it is saving them the cost of postage, paper, printing, envelopes and the stuffing of same. My local council is sending notices out almost daily and I suspect their email database is a lot larger than than the number amateur licences currently issued.

Now the licence is free but as with a lot of things, free = irrelevant or valueless or both.

Sadly for many amateurs it will probably become pointless too.

Last edited by Junk Box Nick; 10th Mar 2021 at 9:15 pm.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 9:36 pm   #116
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

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Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick View Post
I have operated from a flat. It was hardly an ideal situation years ago and given the proximity of neighbours on all sides would appear next to impossible now except with miniscule power through very compromised antennas that probably makes the rewards for the effort put in to get on the air so small as to be pointless.
My situation is similar, in a block of flats so compliance would be out of the question. I have a small mag loop on the balcony, been there some years but only made one contact running 100W to Italy. Chances of a QSL with 5 Watts? Oh go on!


They say every good dog has its day and I am quite happy to go QRT from the home QTH. Will still keep the 5W hand-held to take up the hills when nobody else is there. Just have to work out how to make a grounded aluminium foil covering to protect me when I transmit.

Never ever thought our hobby could be damaged so much by officialdom, but on the good side, it makes you feel how the Amateurs must have felt when they had to give up their gear for WW2.........K
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 9:53 pm   #117
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

You should realise that the intent of this is to prevent the tinfoil hat and Icke followers brigade upsetting 5G cellular. The rest is collateral damage.

tI should be a minor irritant for amateur radio; should be surmountable, or would be if the RSGB spreadsheet worked on my PC. Similarly, the offcom spreadsheet should cover<10MHz. As a separate issue, use of spreadsheets reliant on installing 3rd party software for calculations like this is, to be polite, severly flawed.

John
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 10:12 pm   #118
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

Another thing - do we have to do a separate calc for each band we operate on? And every time we move or change our antennas?
I think those who find themselves in a similar situation to myself will take the easy option of either lying or packing it all in.
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Old 10th Mar 2021, 10:33 pm   #119
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Default Re: OFCOM re: International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)

After discussion the mods feel that this should be put on hold until the RSGB provide advice and worked examples.
It can be opened again once the RSGB have given advice for further discussion if necessary.

Cheers Mike T
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